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Nutshell Kingdom: Grand Canyon
2005
This weekend was so hot (102 F Sunday afternoon, according to my car thermometer) that I had little choice but to stay indoors and attempt to relax. However, there was another reason...
I went to the doctor on Friday and, among other things, had my blood pressure taken. They do it every time, right after weighing me. They did it last month and the month after that (I'm catching up on years of no health insurance). I have always been fine. Until now.
Suddenly, my BP was at 170 over something. Huh? I asked, incredulous. 170 over something. Last month, it was 140. Normal. Now, I am a walking time bomb - a 34 year-old heart attack/stroke wating to happen.
Of course, Anne, the happyrobot Resident Nurse, informed me that older folk often adjust to their constant high blood pressure, that they are relatively safe. Sadly, the real dangerous cases are folks like me, younger, slightly healthier people whose BP just spikes suddenly. These are more often terminal. Figures.
So I am taking it easy. Reading. Listening to music. Pacing myself at work. Stocking up on fruits and vegetables. It was an aberration. It was an aberration. It was an aberation. Repeat until it works.
It is a strange revelation to find that you are silently and unknowingly walking a path just a few feet from hidden death. Its like suddenly realizing that you driving only a broken vista from the Grand Canyon.
